Mr Delivery, Island Style

Ah... The buses of the third world....


Public transport in Africa, while generally dodgy to the untrained eye, has never failed to provide a wonderful amount of entertainment and insight into local life.


Thanks to the alternator on my older than old Toyota pickup giving grief, I was back on the buses. My destination was Anse Bois de Rois where I would be joining a few friends for a swim and dinner.


So I bundled up my swim stuff and headed to the bus stop. On Praslin there are only two routes. The route over the Vallei der Mai is the more regular route and and buses run every 15minutes to half hour. The Consolation route - the one I was catching - runs far less regularly! 


So I arrived a little early at the stop and was very surprised when the bus rolled in only 10 min late. I've had buses just not arrive before so this was exciting indeed.


The trip was going pretty normally - lots of crashing into gears, whining of the diff and acceleration on dodgy corners punctuated by heavy braking at every stop...


Then all of a sudden, just past the village of Grand Anse, the bus driver stopped and jumped off the bus and walked down the beach - you could see he was looking for someone. The young French couple across the aisle from looked rather perturbed. No one really cared. Three or four minutes later our intrepid driver arrived back with a bunch of poissons (fish) in one hand and a scruffy looking security guard in the other... 

Turns out the security was a cousin of his who struggles to hold down a job and was meant to be on this bus. And the fish he picked up from a fisherman while fetching his cousin. Much apologising was done by the cousin - not the driver - and we were on our way again. 


It was now crashing into gears, whining of the diff, acceleration on dodgy corners punctuated by heavy braking at every stop and the driver absolutely crapping all over his 'good-for-nothing' cousin. 

But it wasn't over... About five minutes from my stop our driver - now driving twice the normal break speed in an attempt to my up time last by fetching the delinquent cousin - slammed on brakes for a guy with no shirt... 


Now out here shirts are a must for shops, buses and church! So I was expecting some comment from the driver. But no. The shirtless guy, who I now saw had no front teeth either, ran around to the drivers door and handed the driver 120 rupees who in turn gave shirtless toothless guy six beers.


Mr Delivery Island Style. 



I turned to the Frenchies asked whether it was their first trip to the island... They nodded with wide eyes...